See Me Now? I've Got a Flag!

The other day on a walk up 40th in Wallingford, we noticed that the crossing flags at 40th and Sunnyside were in search of an adopter. There was a little sign up next to the flag bucket that we took a picture of, but, you know, cameraphone at night...it's not that visible. It said something like, "Adopt this intersection--email CrossingFlags@gmail.com." We emailed to determine what, exactly, adopting crossing flags entailed--because the flags in Wallingford are starting to mature and we're not prepared for the teen years--and it turns out you just buy new flags ($1.62 a pop) every once in a while to replace the flags lost to attrition (or attempt to get the city to put flags there, although that way madness lies).

"Flags tend to disappear, primarily due to theft," the CrossingFlags website says, and that reminds us of a funny short story someone told us at Thanksgiving regarding the crossing flags on Pike near the Honey Hole on Capitol Hill: "First night: all the flags are stolen. Second night: the buckets are filled with trash. Third night: the buckets are stolen." That is some serious attrition. According to the CrossingFlags website again, residential neighborhoods tend to experience less attrition than business districts with lots of out-of-neighborhood pedestrians, so if you're in the market for a crossing flag intersection to adopt (a great Christmas gift to a loved one?), don't think you're going to be replacing six flags a night at 40th and Sunnyside. Apparently the novelty has worn off and very few of them vanish. Our conclusion: Wallingford can handle pedestrian implements, Capitol Hill can't. Another possible conclusion: Wallingford is full of zombies with nothing better to do than sit around and strategize methods of lowering the attrition rates of crossing flags along 40th. A third conclusion: the kids on the Hill are getting into semaphore.